Posted by By Osaro Okhomina on
FOLLOWING the revelation that some traditional rulers in Edo State confer chieftaincy titles on politicians without due regard to the existing laws in the state, the state governement, yesterday, threatened to withdraw such titles and punish the traditional rulers and chiefs of such communities involved in such activity.
BENIN CITY - FOLLOWING the revelation that some traditional rulers in Edo State confer chieftaincy titles on politicians without due regard to the existing laws in the state, the state governement, yesterday, threatened to withdraw such titles and punish the traditional rulers and chiefs of such communities involved in such activity.
The State Government also announced that all traditional rulers in the state should, as a matter of urgency, appear before the committee set up by Governor Lucky Igbinedion and headed by his Special Adviser on Local Government and Traditional Matters, the Reverend Michael Egharevba, with a list of traditional titles awarded in the last two years for verification in accordance with the Traditional Rulers and Chiefs Law of 1979.
Speaking with newmen yesterday in Benin City, the Special Adviser to the Governor on Local Government and Chieftancy Matters, the Reverend Michael Egharevba said the traditional rulers affected have been ordered to withdraw such unlisted and ungazetted traditional titles to avoid being sactioned by the state government.
Egharevba said, "traditional rulers and chiefs in the respective councils have thrown to the wind the Traditional Rulers and Chiefs Law of 1979 as ammended at diffenrent times and dates and gazetted by the State Government.
"Some Traditional Rulers, to our amazement have, on their own, without regard to the government directives on the matter, gone out to confer some unlisted titles on individuals and politicians without due consideration to the existing laws.
"In view of this development and departure from the Law, the State Government frowns seriously at this illegal practices engaged in by the erring traditional rulers and chiefs. We have therefore, set up a machinery, through the office of the Special Adviser, to investigate this embarrasing trend of confering on individuals titles which have brought to its lowest ebb the honour of traditional rulers in the state.
"These traditional rulers should, with immediate effect, rescind and retrace their steps by revoking the conferment of such titles on whoever must have beeen honoured with such defective titles."